Paul's Sins.

Act 22:1  Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. 

Act 22:2  (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,) 

Act 22:3  I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. 

Act 22:4  And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. 

Act 22:5  As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished. 

Act 22:6  And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. 

Act 22:7  And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 

Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. 

Act 22:9  And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. 

Act 22:10  And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. 

Act 22:11  And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. 

Act 22:12  And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, 

Act 22:13  Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. 

Act 22:14  And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 

Act 22:15  For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. 

Act 22:16  And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. 

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Yet another account of Paul's conversion. We have to realize that our conversion stories are important. No, we don't have the circumstances of Paul, but at some point we went from darkness to light, from unknowing to knowing.  Even those who are raised to know Jesus and love Him from their youth have the conversion story it has to be there somewhere because we all must be born again. We all have to be born of the water and spirit.  Often children are baptized and while I'm not saying children can't be baptized I'm saying those children must be of an age of accountability, they must know what sin is and their guilt in it, their part in sinning and their need of salvation. You truly can't repent and be baptized if you do not know what you are repenting of. It's all well and good to believe a child loves the Lord and wishes to be baptized, but in truth, they have to be old enough to know what it all truly means.

Our conversion testimony is our going from death to life, no wonder it is worthy of recounting.

Paul spoke these words--

Act 22:12  And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, 

Act 22:13  Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. 

Act 22:14  And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 

Act 22:15  For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. 

Act 22:16  And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord

Ananias- a devout man had a good reputation among the Jews and He came to Paul and called Paul a brother, telling him he'd receive his sight and Paul did.  The man also said that God chose Paul to know God's will and to see the JUST ONE, and hear the JUST ONE'S voice. He told him that he would be a witness to all men of what he'd heard and seen.  And then he said to him…

Why are you waiting? Get up, be baptized. Wash away your sins calling on the name of the LORD.

Wash away your sins.

We discussed yesterday about Paul going to be baptized before eating and drinking. It was so vitally important that Paul accept his calling and see it through before he cared for his own physical needs. He was extremely hungry and thirsty, how could he not be. Do you remember when Jesus was in the wilderness after His own baptism? Forty days and forty nights no eating or drinking- clearly sustained by God's power alone because man cannot survive that long without drinking. Paul was perhaps sustained in the same way, but he was weak after only three days and nights without food or drink. He had to be hungry and thirsty but more than that his spiritual need outweighed his physical. He was in desperate need of baptism- he needed his sins to be washed away before he could undertake the mission the Lord had chosen him for.

The weight of the sins upon Paul had to be many in light of the truth of all he'd done and thought against Jesus.  Were they sins of ignorance? Paul was a devout man of God. Paul thought he was doing God's will.  And in truth, he was doing God's will. Just as a man was born blind and the question was asked who sinned to cause his blindness. The answer was no one.

Joh 9:3  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 

Could Paul have acted as he did so that the works of God should be made manifest in him?

Even if that is the case, Paul needed to have his sins washed away - every single sin. Sins of ignorance, sins of neglect, deliberate sins, sins of any sort all of them needed to be washed away by the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul was going to be buried in baptism, his sins washed, and he was going to rise up into new life with Christ as His personal Savior. From that moment on he would be a Christ follower.  Paul would be an apostle of Christ's. Paul would truly work the works of God as no other apostle. And, Paul would suffer horrifically.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, now and forever!!!!!!!